Tea Guys

I’m really torn by this tea. I think it’s beautiful and delicate tasting. I absolutely love the flavor. The mango, for me, comes more as an after taste on the exhale, and the rose is the initial flavor I pick up. I really, really love floral teas, and this one is right up my ally. Just a little funky smelling out of the bag. I’m noticing that with a lot of Two Tea Guys Teas, not sure I’ll be ordering from them again, but this tea is worth trying for sure!

When I ordered all my TeaGuys samples, this was the tea I had the most hope for. Much to my surprise, I did not get any spice from the ginger OR the peppercorn in this tea, making it a bit of a let down. It just tasted like a mediocre strawberry white tea. I’ll definitely be sticking with Strawberry Paraiso for a similar flavor. If there was more, or any spice to this tea, I probably would have liked it more.

It’s good tasting, but not what’s advertised.

Nice medium range oolong. Very sweet and clean taste. Great for multiple infusions, I did 5, and still had a nice flavor. Great for iced tea as well. Comparable to Teavana’s Six Summits Oolong before they added all the artificial stuff to it.

I was pretty excited about this tea, because I absolutely LOVE nutty teas. It did smell fairly artificial when I got it, and sadly MUCH more like coconut than the description led me to think.

Once brewed the tea smelled much more natural like walnuts, however, I after taking one sip, I dumped the cup, because there was a copious amount of oil sitting on the top.

Resteeped it after, still a little oil, but not as much. Got through the cup, but I won’t be using the rest of my sample. Too bad, as this sounded promising.

I’ve been kind of…I dunno, not disappointed exactly but not bowled over by most of the Tea Guys samples I’ve tried over the weekend (they often smell fantastic dry and at first in the cup, but the flavor is unbalanced towards tart or bitter, with a base of totally unremarkable tea), so I was expecting to be meh about this otherwise fantastic sounding blend for afternoon tea. R came home out of sorts—had a terrible day at work, complete with another fight breaking out in his classroom—so I tried to cheer him up with my favorite Dead Authors podcast (the one with Nietzsche and Lovecraft!), open-faced toasted apple tahini sandwiches, and some of this. It was better than the others I’ve tried so far (Maple, Chocolate Ginger Bourbon which was actually pretty good leftover cold, I forget what else). Very strong honey aroma and the pistachio’s definitely present too. Still an unremarkable tea base, but I didn’t mind so much with such flavor and aroma. Quite nice, and amplified from the honey in our sandwiches. I’m not sure I’d bother ordering again from Tea Guys unless some of the others are better too, but if I did, I’d get more of this. It wouldn’t surprise me if their stuff generally makes for good fragrant rubs or marinades, or other culinary/cocktail steeping tasks as they’re always fragrant at least.

I tried this this morning and it is the best coconut tea I’ve ever tasted and probably one of the best teas all together :) I followed the instructions for brewing and added some milk as well. Very nice and smooth.

I like tea blends that have chamomile, but they have to be done well. This one makes me a little nervous because of the licorice, but I’m hoping that the vanilla and chamomile will be able to hide that flavor. The blend is quite heavy on the chamomile flowers – I almost can’t see any of the other ingredients except for the lemongrass. The scent is light, slightly herbal and sweet.

Sipping… the chamomile is the first thing that I taste. It changes quickly into the nicest combination of flowers and vanilla. The finish is sweet, but a little strange. I’m getting some notes of licorice (that throat-coating sweetness) and stevia. I wish that this blend could just be the vanilla and chamomile because that mixture is lovely. The stevia and licorice finish ruins the cup, in my opinion. It’s not undrinkable, but leaves a gross feeling and flavor in the back of the throat.

I tried this tea yesterday and I think is really good. It’s very flavourful and rich. I made it with steamed milk and it was super nice.

This tea smells of coffee, kukicha and toasted rice. I feel like I’ve smelled this before in other green tea blends, so I’m almost expecting this to taste familiar. Sipping… this is a very smooth and sweet green tea. It actually reminds me of marshmallow treat genmaicha, only less toasty. I don’t really taste caramel or burnt sugar, but a soothing and sweet green tea. Nothing is overwhelming or unbalanced. The flavors of this blend are in harmony, but they’re not that special. I wish that there were more caramel, but it is a quietly soothing cup for this evening.

I had been wanting to try this one for so long! I finally bought a little sample of it and I’m quite happy that I did. Plain, this tea is a bit like spice cake with a hint of carrot. The spices are prominent and I do detect some carrot towards the end of the sip. After I’ve added a splash of milk, it turns into a more delicious dessert tea — creamy, cakey, carroty. There is a little bit of that sour finish that I found was present in the other Tea Guys rooibos/honeybush blend. This tea would be even more tasty without that sour note, but otherwise, it’s a very nice dessert blend. If I ever buy more, I’m definitely going to have it exclusively with milk. The added creaminess takes it to another level.

The scent of this tea is spot-on eggnog. It smells creamy & spicy. I usually don’t like nutmeg in anything, but I can usually handle it in eggnog. After water has been added, the spices come to the front rather quickly and the creaminess of the eggnog is lost. The cup turns into a bit of a cloudy, orange cup with a decent bit of oil on the top. It smells quite spicy now – nutmeg and cinnamon being most prominent.

Sipping… this one’s a little weird. The first thing I taste is something almost fruity? It reminds me a little bit of apple combined with the tartness of apple skin. The sip carries on and I pick up some marshmallow. The end of the sip finishes with some sweet rooibos. Not bad… This is certainly drinkable as I’m now about halfway through my cup. I think that this tea would probably work well with milk because it might tone down the tart, almost sour, note that I’m getting. The spices are there, but they stay in the background and lend a sweetness to the cup. They actually make me think of a spice cookie in the way they are present, but not dominating. I can detect a little bit of maple as an aftertaste, but it otherwise doesn’t show up.

This is a nice blend for the holidays. I’m going to try this with milk, perhaps as a latte and will write an updated note. For now, I’m not crazy about the tart flavor & want more of that marshmallow/creamy flavor to come out.

this is a really good version of this tea, if you are a person who might really like this type of tea.
if you know what i mean.
it’s a nice one. i’m glad i have a few more cups worth.

This is my favorite tea of all time and the only Earl Grey I drink on a regular basis. Love the vanilla flavor in it. Tastes good iced too!

Thanks to Shmiracles for this one!

This smells carrot cake spicy mixed with rooibos. Which, according to the description, is exactly what it should smell like. Fancy that.

Well it’s definitely one of the better rooibos teas I’ve tried but still there’s that medicinal taste. A sweetness is coming out as it cools. It doesn’t exactly taste like carrot cake but something is reminding me of carrot cake.

I really need to try this tea on its own, but not today! The first time I mixed it hot with Tea Guys’ Maple Sugar and it was amazing, so I decided to experiment a little bit more. Ads for Teavana’s Pineapple Blueberry Pop mix keep popping up, and it seems like a good flavor combination but their teas are so expensive. So, I made my own—2 parts Persimmon Tree’s Tropical Pineapple, 1 part Wild Blueberry (since the flavor is a lot stronger). I cold brewed it overnight, and it’s just what I wanted—juicy and sweet from the blueberry, tropical with a slight hint of tang from the pineapple. They both have a green base so the flavors don’t clash but work together in harmony. Very nice!

Another cuppa with Ashmanra. This one smells like chocolate macaroons to me but dry and brewed. Black the tea is dark chocolate and coconut taste. Adding milk and sugar it tastes even more like chocolate macaroons to me.

I am taking tea with Ruth (ashmanra), again, today and this was one of our selections. It is a very nice chocolate tea. It brews up a medium brown and both dried and brewed smells deliciously chocolatey. It is more of a bitter-sweet and nutty chocolate to me when tasted without milk. Adding a bit of milk blunted some of the nuttiness to me but did bring out more of the chocolate. Adding a bit of sugar makes it a sweet chocolate treat.

This was the final tea of tea time today. The aroma is very nice, and my guest really loves coconut so she especially liked this one. We took it plain, but I think this is one I might like best with a wee bit of milk and sugar to enhance the dessert tea qualities. Though it was proclaimed “very good”, I don’t think I would be inclined to buy this one again. I would go for a pound of Harney’s Soho blend instead.

I have had this tea a few times before, but today it was sandwiched between Chocolate Delight and Organic Tropical Paradise. Though it is a very good tea, that was an unfair position for it to be in. To bring it up to the level of body and flavor the other teas had today, I had to add milk and a bit of sugar. Still, a very good tea, especially if you like coconut and a hint of chocolate. Milk and sugar make it a strong hint.

I was given a whole bag of this tea, minus one teaspoon, by a friend who ordered it but loved their Chocolate Delight too much to cheat on it with any other tea. What a great thing for me!

We were awed by the aroma. Great coconut aroma and flavor, nice and smooth, and it didn’t get bitter as it cooled. I am glad I have a whole bag of this! I really have to try more from the Tea Guys. Both of their offerings that I have tried so far are quite addicting!

This was new to my guest today, though I have had it once before. It was very well liked. Youngest added sugar as always but was surprised by how sweet the tea is naturally and had to add more tea to cut the sweetness a bit. Everyone else took it plain, and it was quite good. I really get a lot of chocolate flavor, and a smooth vanilla flavor, though the coconut is the top note in the aroma. The teas were paired with warm apple cobbler…lazy pie, actually, if you know what that is, and a wee scoop of Breyer’s vanilla ice cream.